I met our nephew, Noah, when he was a little over a year old and he taught me all about gator wrastlin'. The trunk strength and flexibility of an infant can be tremendous. I can't capture any pictures of myself with Henry, but here is one of Tina trying to contain him when he's really excited to eat his own toes:

Tina lives in Chicago, so she took the bus up to Milwaukee last week and Henry and I drove over to meet her for the day. We had a great time at Broadway Paper, Milwaukee Ale House for lunch, Ruhama's Yarn and Alterra Coffee. I have to take advantage of Henry's willingness to hang out at craft stores now. I'm sure gator wrastlin' is easier than toddler corralling.

I don't have a great reason for not posting lately, except that I don't have much to say or to show. I'm still working on the wall quilt sewing and it is coming along nicely. I have some gift sewing and knitting in the works, but can't share pictures, and Henry is still just as cute as ever.

The only notable news is that my thermometer shows 58 degrees and it is the 22nd of November. in Wisconsin. I'm not kidding. Henry was barefoot and without a hat when we sat outside today. That's just wild.

So I'm going to enjoy this gorgeous day with my two guys and I'll be back next week. In the meantime, here is my favorite fall picture of Henry.

I went for a bike ride the other day. Just 10 minutes with the baby at home with Daddy, and I felt so free and alive. Legs and heart pumping and the breeze blowing on my skin. I used to do fun rides of 15 miles on any given day, charity bike rides of up to 100 miles, and Ben and I went bicycle camping and hauled all of our gear to a state park.
This year I was on my bike 3 times. Once at 7 and a half months pregnant--a horrible idea, once about 3 weeks after giving birth--an equally horrible idea, and then this ride. The most glorious 10 minutes all week. I can't recommend it enough.
What little escapes make you feel free?

Melissa (she's one third of the Knitting Sandwich) made a good point in her comment to my last post: "i need them to come with good directions, i know next to nothing about planting flowers!"

So, my gardening disclaimer is this: I am not a great gardener. Growing pretty stuff is deceptively easy. It is the weeding and mulching that gets hard. Some stuff won't grow in your soil, or with your amount of sunlight or moisture, but that's okay. Every year my spinach is pitiful and my snap peas are poor producers, and I gave up on growing ranunculus bulbs. But, I still try it out and if it doesn't come up, I try again in the case of veggies and I try something else in the case of flowers. So, be brave, try some seeds, and I'll send the best directions I can :)

In other garden news, our weather is still holding out, so I put the veggie garden to bed for the year. Henry got fussy while I was mulching the leaves (I totally heart my new electric leaf vacuum/mulcher),

so I distracted him with a Swiss chard leaf. He loved the springy, squeaky texture and enjoyed mouthing it and tearing it up. And it composts in about a week. What "green" toys do your kids love best?

Last weekend we had GORGEOUS weather for November in Wisconsin. 60's to low 70's, sunny, light breeze. We spent a half day putting the yard and the garden to bed for the year, and I spent some time harvesting seeds. I have lots of this:

purple poppies, full/part sun, sow anytime between now and the first snow

some of this:

wild columbine, part sun/shade, May blooms,
sow now

and this is a new one to harvest this year:

butterfly weed, sun, sow now or in the spring, may not establish and flower until the following year, mid to late summer blooms

I'm happy to send out an envelope of seeds to anyone that requests some.

Also, if you are local or willing to pay shipping for small bulb/tubers, you can have some of these:

mini irises (Siberian?), sun/part sun, early blooming (April), will multiply so you can share with your neighbors in a few years.

I hope all of the gardeners out there get a few lovely weather days left to poke around in the dirt before the snow flies.